Should We Rent A Home In Pre-Foreclosure?

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Q: Are there any safe and legitimate situations where renting a pre-foreclosure would be a good idea? We have called a couple of listings and found that they are being rented by an “organization” and if you pay a fee to become a member of this “organization,” you can view and rent homes in pre-foreclosure. I am trying to find out if these are scams.
Thanks.–Anonymous, Santa Monica, CA

A: This may be a scam insofar that as a tenant you have a different set of rights from the homeowner. These rights affect the lender in how they may foreclose on a home and help extend the time a current defaulted homeowner may keep the house in their name; in addition the current homeowner is no longer paying the mortgage but able to collect rent from whomever they rented their place out to.Adam Aguilar is a Realtor® with Reliantra in West Toluca Lake, CA.

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